Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-09-22
HOW THE MISER'S GOLD CAME
TO THE VETERAN.

Rumors of the enemy's approach had
all day agitated the village. At noon
farmer rode into town, and re-
ported that from the roof of his house
he had seen thousands of armed men
passing upon q road about mile OF.
He was certain they would enter the
village.
The intelligence filed the poor peo-
pie with profound distress. 70 be de-
spoiled OF their.substance, and to have
their homes destroyed by stragglers or
marauders, was the least they could
anticipate. A panic possessed them.
Some hastily secreted their valuables,
and others set forth laden with valued
property. A few of the old, the infirm,
and the bed-ridden remained, and III a
few instances the more courageous of
the men; but the bulk of the several
hundred inhabitants made their way as
best they might to the mountains,
where they remained that night.
When, the next day, some of the
bolder ones went back to re on
noiter, they found their worst fears
confirmed. The village was nearly all
consumed by fire. Some who had ven-
tured to remain were found tied up to
the trunks of trees. They told pitiful
stories of blows with the flats of sabers
and threatenings with pistols to make
them tell where treasure had been
buried.
The main army had passed off three
miles from the village; all this havoc
and ruin was wrought by a detach-
ment of irregular cavalry, which, con-
trary to orders, was securing the coun-
try for pillage. The poor people whom
they had so distressed were not sorry
to learn afterward that some of these
wretches had been summarily shot by
order of the commanding General.
When the inhabitants of the village
came back to their devastated homes
the sun was shining brightly on the
smoking ruins; there was not cloud
in the sky. Yet, far off, they heard
all day sound as of rolling thunder.
Not until two days later did they know
that they had listened to the noise of
great battle, twenty miles off, in
which ten thousand men were killed and
mangled.
After painful labors and more suffer
ing these people rebuilt their ravaged
homes and soon peace came, with all
its blessings. But many long year
passed before the effects of their terri
BILE experience ceased to be noticed
Some of these individual experiences
have been reported elsewhere, by 9th
ers than myself. The one that most
wildly recalled to my mind the warlike
preface just given has never been
placed in print.
Upon the day when the village was
burned. among the few who ventured
to remain and meet the raiders was
Moses Dimock, then a feeble man of
sixty-fve. This man rarely spoke to
anyone; he lived entirely alone in q
little cabin that he had made; he
seemed to have no occupation. The
gossips of the place had circulated the
story that he was immensely wealthy
and had great treasure concealed about
his small house. Something of this
rumor the rough-riders of that terrible
day must have gathered from the badly
scared people who remained behind.
They seized Dimock, ted stout cords
about his thumbs, aud hauled him up
so that he could barely stand on tiptoe,
at the same time threatening him with
instant death il he did not tell where
his treasure was concealed. He
shrieked with pain. but never wavered
in the assertion that he had nothing.